What Goalies and Their Coaches Should Know
About Practice Responsibilities

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I’ve been coaching goalies for many
years now and I’m still amazed at the lack of focus many goalies
have at practice. Whether it’s the little munchkins (who rightfully
don’t quite have the long attention spans) or older high school and
college goalies (who should know better), I don’t see an objective
approach to the drills they face at practice. Coaches also rarely
explain what a goalie should be doing in a drill other than an
occasional “stop the puck” edict.

Coaches spend a lot of time
explaining what forwards or defensemen are trying to do in a warm-up
drill or in one-on-ones, two-on-ones, three-on-twos, power plays and
breakouts. Goalies have responsibilities in each and every
situation. A coach doesn’t have to be a former goalie to add a short
explanation for a goalie’s role in a drill. Goalies shouldn’t be
zoning out during drill explanations either. When a goalie sees the
drill, he or she should be creating some type of game plan for it
even if the drill isn’t “goalie friendly”. There is always something
positive you can gain out of a drill if you look hard enough. Let’s
look at some examples:

1) Shooting Warm-ups: This is the chance to practice stepping out to the angle,
holding your ground against a player who is clearly shooting,
cushioning or steering rebounds and patience to make the shooter
commit first. This is a great opportunity for the goalie to practice
“crease presence”. How do you tell if you’ve got great crease
presence in a warm-up shooting drill? Are the shooters missing the
net a lot? If so, your angles and patience is spot on. If you’re
getting lit up like a Christmas tree, you may be backing in too
fast, flat-footed deep in the crease or not turning into your saves.
Try and play inside-out on every shot. This means that you take some
space away on the shooter when the shooter is looking and you hold
your ground until the player is just beyond stick length away. Turn
into every save! Don’t just look at the puck out of the corner of
your eye and make a half-hearted stab at the puck. If the players
are coming in too fast, go hard every other player so you do things
correctly. Ask the coach to slow the players down. You should look
calmly aggressive not wandering out of control all over the ice.
Think of a coiled rattlesnake ready to strike as the image you are
trying to portray!

2) One-on-Ones: The
forwards are obviously trying to beat the D either in a high seam or
low seam. If the shooter attacks below the D, the goalie must not
retreat too early into the net because that will give the shooter
more deking and shooting space. Protect that gap and either
pokecheck the player if he or she gets too close or be able to move
with a close gap to the puck to minimize the space the shooter has
to play with. If the player has wheels, you may have to use one or
two half-steps when moving laterally to get your body all the way
across the crease with the shooter. If you take one long push-off
stride into a butterfly, the 5 Hole is exposed or the player may
just blow right by you. If you are going to move laterally with the
player, you will have to time it right and stay close! If the
offensive player cuts in front of the D, make sure you are not
gliding backwards on your heels because you will have a tough time
on a sneaky screen shot. If the player cuts in front of the D, make
sure you take a slight forward step towards the shooter because
there will be more shooting space on the cutback move. Also keep
your hands up, ready and ahead of your body to hide the upper
corners. If a shooter can’t focus in on a lot of high corner space
because your glove and blocker are a distraction, the shooter will
likely miss the net if he or she tries to go top-shelf.

3) Two-on-Ones: Pay attention as to whether the
approaching players are left-handed or right-handed so you can judge
the potential passing and shooting lanes as they get closer. When
the play is nearing your blue line, take note of the way the players
shoot. As the play enters your zone, where is your D? Ideally, the D
will keep the puck carrier to the outside and protect the passing
lane to the middle. The goalie’s responsibility is to stay square to
the shooter but be aware of the angle the player without the puck is
taking. If the wide angle puck carrier decides to drive the net, you
should tell the D to “slide” or come to the puck side a bit more to
discourage a flat-out breakaway. The D still stays in the passing
lane. What you do is determined by what you see. For example, if you
see a right-handed shooter coming down the left side and a
left-handed shooter is driving the net on the right, you know it’s
going to have to be a long pass to move to should it get through to
the back door. However, if you see the lefty is driving too quickly
and the righty is slower, you can hold your angle more squarely on
the righty because the lefty has gone too fast to the net and is not
going to be able to receive a pass or play a rebound. By processing
the way the offensive players shoot, seeing where your D is and
judging the speed and decision making of the offensive players, you
can choose to pressure the righty to eliminate his or her scoring
options.

If a shot is taken from a wide angle, don’t get
caught leaning to the player you think a pass may go to. Play the
shot and control the rebound! If a pass gets across, what’s the best
way to get there? If the player has driven close to the net, you can
attack with a pad save. If the pass occurs early, you have to get
your body all the way over to the puck. Line up on the puck not the
player’s body. When you move to a player who has received a pass,
you have to move to the puck, not the player’s body. The difference
between a left handed shooter’s angle and a right handed shooter’s
angle is about 6 feet. You have to know where you are going!4) Three-on-Twos: Which D is being isolated
two against one by the opposing forwards? Are you stepping out into
lanes to fill the shooting angles? Do you have an active stick to
poke check sloppy passes? Do you freeze pucks to kill the play when
you have the chance or do you blindly smack the puck back into play?
Do you attack point shots if defensemen are trailing the play and
have the option of shooting?

Very often I see goalies hanging
out in 3 on 2 drills just waiting to be shot at. Goalies can dictate
what happens by being proactive and take away options from the
attacking forwards. Goalies should be thinking “How can I be a royal
pain in the neck to these players when they do these 3 on 2s?” If
you do a great job of attacking space, communicating with your D,
paying attention to the scoring triangle the players are trying to
set up and intercept sloppy passes by deflecting or freezing them,
you make your teammates work really hard to score. If you are lazy
and just hang out waiting for an obvious shot to be taken at you,
you are reacting to what is going on around you instead of forcing
shooters to do what YOU want them to do!

5)
Breakouts: Yeah, I know breakouts aren’t the most
exciting thing to practice, but they can be a great opportunity to
practice your verbal and non-verbal communication with your D. First
of all, you and your D should know what your terms mean when
communicating a breakout. Goalies have roles in setting the puck,
quick outs, passes and clears. No one is a mind-reader so your
teammates and coaches should instinctively know what you are doing
with the puck when initiating a breakout.

Dump-Ins: When a puck gets
dumped in on you, your communication should immediately be both
verbal and non-verbal. Point to the side of the net you are setting
the puck by pointing repeatedly with your glove and then yell
something like “Here, Here, Here” so the D can see what you want him
or her to do. Start gesturing and talking BEFORE the D is below the
top of the circles so they have time to go to the right spot. Don’t
wait until the D is two feet from you and then you smack the puck
blindly to the corner. Place the puck within a stick length of the
net and behind the goal line should you need to pull it back and
freeze it.

Quick-Outs: When a puck gets dumped in and the other team
is changing lines, you don’t want your D to come all the way behind
the net when they can start a fast break. When you see the other
team changing, stop the puck, point up ice with your glove and yell
“Go! Go! They’re changing!” and sweep the puck with one hand on your
forehand or backhand into a space your D can skate into with speed.

Stopping the Puck Behind the Net: Ideally, stop the puck behind the
net so the puck can hit the back of the net if you misplay it and
not have the puck rebound in front of an empty net. Pull the puck
away from the boards so either your D can easily skate into it OR
you can have room to pass or clear the puck around an approaching
forechecker. If you keep the puck flush to the boards, your D may
over-skate it or you may lose it to a forechecker.

Passing: If you
need to pass the puck to a winger setting up on the boards, make it
crisp, tape to tape and with spin to keep the puck from bouncing!
Your wingers will hate you if they have to settle a bouncing puck or
wait for a slow pass when they have an opposing D crashing down the
boards at them!

Clearing: Clearing the puck must have purpose and
not just be a chance to show how far you can send the puck! Clearing
the puck to avoid a forecheck and get the puck to a location your
teammates can play it is what’s important. Just because you might be
able to ice the puck with your goalie stick doesn’t mean it’s
helpful to your team if the face-off comes back into your defensive
zone!

6) Power Plays: As a goalie, you
should know what an overload or umbrella power play is trying to set
up. Read the formation, mentally anticipate seams that a pass or
player may be moving towards and know what your options are to
eliminate scoring plays. Again, if you just hang out and sit back
deep in the crease, you will not be a threat to a power play. Your
physical presence can take away passing and shooting lanes which
will make the power play unit work harder to get quality scoring
chances!

Do’s and Dont's
at Practice

Do

Dont

*Make an Effort!Teammates hate a
goalie who doesn’t try!

*Be lazy!Work hard. Practice isn’t
that long you know!

*Take Away Options!Goaltending is
an art! Make practice a masterpiece!